Sold - Patricia McCormick - best one yet!

1. Bibliography:

McCormick, Patricia. SOLD. (New York: Hyperion Books, 2006)

2. Genre and Awards:

Realistic Fiction, Cultural Fiction, Young Adult Fiction

National Book Award Finalist

3. Synopsis:

Sold begins in Nepal with the story of Lakshmi, a young girl who is sold into sex slavery and continues to document her brave struggle through this lifestyle for several years. The story, told in poetic vignettes, documents Lakshmi’s journey into the red-light district of Calcutta, India, the abuse she endures while there, and the gives readers a general sense of how a young woman growing up in the sex trade lives.

4. Characters:

Lakshmi is the main character and the novel is told from her perspective. It is easy to fall in love with Lakshmi and the absolutely atrocious events she is forced to endure are heartbreaking to any reader. Her innocence and naiveté mean that she has no idea what she is getting into and is even excited, in the beginning, at the prospect of being reunited with an old friend who “left” the village earlier. She is culturally out of place, forced to grow up entirely too fast, and slammed daily with harsh realities such as poverty, disease, and pregnancy. In the beginning, we get to know her mother and while Lakshmi is at the “Happiness House” we meet a wide range of characters from Mumtaz, the old woman who runs the house and enslaves the girls, to the David Beckham boy, who is an early companion of Lakshmi’s at the House, despite the language barrier that exists between them.

5. Plot:

Lakshmi is a Nepali girl who lives in a rural village with her poor mother and alcoholic and rarely-present father who is mostly interested in squandering any money they have on a new jacket or something equally frivolous instead of feeding or roofing his family. Her father sells her into sex slavery, at least somewhat knowingly. She is led into India by a man who buys her from the woman her father sold her to and then proceeds to sell Lakshmi to another woman, Mumtaz, the owner of the Happiness House for girls. Men come in and out nightly – sometimes three or four per night. In the midst of all this, Lakshmi is able to connect on deep levels with a couple of the girls who also live in the house, but who are almost immediately torn out of her life because one contracts a disease or another becomes too old for the profession. Eventually, through all she has learned about America from her friend, the David Beckham boy (a young boy whose mother works at Happiness House whose mother who has acquired a football jersey), Lakshmi is able to recognize a Western man when he comes to the house to rescue her. Her plight isn’t over yet, though, because along with devising a system of math that never allows the girls to pay off their “debt” to Mumtaz, she has also convinced them that there are deadly consequences for them and their families if they try to leave.

6. Needs of Adolescents:

I made a list while reading this book of all the needs it addresses and I won’t proceed to put it on here in its entirety. This book gives a very detailed look at one part of Middle Eastern culture, which is something that could be very helpful for young people growing up in a post-9/11, very Southern, sometimes racist and hateful society where they often aren’t sure what to think of people from these cultures. It does so in a sensitive way that would certainly cause readers to have a great deal of compassion for young people in this way of life and hopefully open their eyes to see the pain that every people group has to bear. The book also addresses family a lot. In the beginning, Lakshmi lives in a broken family that is plagued by alcoholism, immaturity, and she often feels like she carries all of that weight on herself, like I am sure many of our students will feel about their own family situations. The book also describes a ton of culture shock, so I think it could be a great outlet for adolescents who are trying to adjust to American culture to read about someone that is in the same situation. It is set so far away from here that it might allow students not to identify so much that they felt like it was an after-school special, but enough that they could connect emotionally. Like I said, this is just the beginning of the list of adolescent needs I see this book addressing.

7. Possible Classroom Uses:

Similar to The House on Mango Street, because it is told in short pieces, its possible uses in a classroom are nearly endless. The vignettes that talk about Lakshmi arriving in the new country and in a big city from her rural village could be particularly useful in talking with students about culture and city and having them explore in writing what they would find strange about the world they live in if they stepped in as an outsider. In our society at large, there is a growing trend to have a social conscience (Go figure; it’s about time). I think this book would be great to recommend to high school girls, especially, who had the capacity to think in those global terms as a way to introduce a topic they might not otherwise know much about or have much reason to be interested in.

8. Appropriate Age Range:

I think a lot of junior high students would probably be able to handle itCertainly high school girls could get behind it. It is a sensitive and tough subject to think about, though, so I would be careful to give it to a student I was not able to keep a close eye on and be available for processing with them. I would encourage conversations with their parents and I wouldn’t give it to a student whose parents I knew to be very picky about book content without permission. I mean, there’s sex. It’s the sex trade.

9. Personal Reactions:

I loved this book. It made me cry. The level of Lakshmi’s innocent ignorance was heartbreaking, as any books are where when kids lose their innocence and turn into adults, but it was particularly painful, because of how she was forced to do so. I will be finding a way to use parts of this book in a classroom ASAP. McCormick’s narrative style was absolutely fascinating and the level to which she knew her subject matter (the jacket talks about her extensive travels into Calcutta and the red-light district and interviews with its residents) are something that students should be exposed to. Even if I wasn’t able to tell them all the details of the book, to be able to talk to them about the level of cultural confusion Lakshmi experiences would be very exciting!